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Ministry, DEPA plan to open up gas trade

By Chryssa Liaggou

The liberalization of the local retail market for natural gas is the main priority of the new administration at the Public Gas Corporation (DEPA), as the country’s creditors are expecting the Environment and Energy Ministry to submit the bill on the necessary changes next month.

The focus of the new DEPA board’s first meeting last week was the issue of opening up the market, which is jointly managed by DEPA with the ministry and the three local gas supply corporations in Attica, Thessaly and Thessaloniki.

According to the revised agreement between Athens and its creditors, the Greek authorities are supposed to have overseen the splitting of the local corporations’ activities into distribution and trade by the end of next month so that the local firms can start operating in their new forms from January next year. This way the natural gas market monopoly that local corporations have maintained by way of long-term contracts with the state will be broken. The ministry is already negotiating offsetting measures with the owners of the local firms for the loss of their monopolies.